Santhali Sohrai murals: An etch in time

• Santhali communities of Odisha and Jharkhand are changing their ways of painting Sohrai murals
• These are part of a long tradition of the Santhal community
• Santhali women usually paint the walls of their houses to mark Sohrai, a harvest festival coinciding with Diwali or Kali Puja.

Sohrai

• It is a harvest festival of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal.
• It is also called the cattle festival.
• It is celebrated after harvest and coincides with the festival of Diwali.
• It is celebrated by Prajapati, Santal, Munda and Oraons among others.

Sohrai Art Form

• Tribal women in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district practise Sohrai painting, a traditional art technique.
• The murals are created on mud walls to celebrate the cattle and welcome the crop. The women clean their homes and paint Sohrai art murals on their walls.
• Since 10,000-4,000 BC, this art form has been practised. It started in caves and then spread to houses with mud walls.
• Sohrai Khovar painting received the Geographical Indication(GI) tag in 2020.

Key Features of Sohrai Art Form

• Sohrai art can be monochromatic or multicoloured.
• The people apply a coating of white mud on the wall then sketch on it with their fingertips while it is still wet.
• Flowers and fruits, as well as other nature-inspired patterns, are featured in their designs.
• Cow dung, which was previously used to coat the house's walls, is now used to add colour.
• In their drawings, the painters are uninhibited. The designs are frequently sketched from memory by the artist.
• The artist's personal experience and interactions with nature have the greatest influence.